Pen for Allah

[previous post in the series - # 1 : Shirk]

The Second Major Sin – Murder.

Allah (swt) says in the glorious Quran:

“And if anyone kills a believer deliberately, his recompense is Hell, to remain therein forever. And Allah’s anger will be upon him and His curse, and a great punishment will be prepared from him.” (Surah An-Nisa 4:93)

And,

“[The servants of the Most-Merciful are, among others,] Those who do not call upon any other god together with Allah, nor kill any person who Allah has prohibited (killing) except in (the course of) justice, nor commit Zina (fornication or adultery)- and whoever does that will incur guilt; the punishment will be doubled for him on the Day of Resurrection and he will remain in it forever, disgraced, excepting the one who repents and believes and acts righteously.” (Surah Al-Furqan 25:68-70)

And also,

“On account of that (the killing of one of the descendants of Adam by his brother), we prescribed for the Children of Israel that if someone kills a person, unless it is (retaliation) for the murder of another or for spreading corruption on earth, it will be as if he had killed the whole of man-kind…” (Surah Al-Ma'idah 5:32)

And in another verse,

“When the girl who was buried (alive) is asked for what crime she was killed…” (Surah At-Takwir 81:8-9)

We mentioned before the Hadith in which the Prophet (saw) said: “Avoid the seven noxious things” , and among these seven he mentioned- “killing one whom Allah has declared inviolate without a just cause”.

And in another Hadith he said: “When two Muslims meet with their swords, the one who kills and the one who is killed will go to hellfire” , when he was asked, what was wrong with the one who was killed? He replied, “He was eager to kill his companion” (Muslim, Bukhari and Ahmad).

In explaining the meaning of this Hadith, the Scholars of Islam said that, this is when the two Muslims fight each other for the sake of personal enmity or group partisanship, for the sake of wealth or leadership or fame. However, if someone is fighting a rebellious people for a reason which makes fighting them necessary, or is fighting to defend his life or his family, he is not included in the meaning of this Hadith. due to the reason that the fight is imposed on him by the attacker and he is forced to defend himself. and Allah knows best.

Murder is indeed a greave sin and it’s graveness explained in many saying of the Prophet Muhammad (saw). in the last sermon during the Hajj He said to the people- “You must not revert to infidelity (kufr) after my dead by cutting off one another’s heads”. the mention of infidelity and murder in the same sentence is very important to notice, because the soul of the believer is holier then the Ka’aba itself, and shedding of blood will be the first matter about which judgement will be give on the Day of Resurrection. (Bukhari)

As regard to non-Muslims, the Messenger of Allah (saw) says:

 “If anyone kills a man who has made a covenant he will not experience the fragrance of Paradise, yet its odour can be experienced at the distance of forty year’s journey” , and in another Hadith he say that berceuse the life of that person were guaranteed by Allah and the Messenger, and the murderer broke it, Allah guaranty that the murderer will not experience the fragrance of the Paradise.

so to sum it all up:

• Murder – taking the life of anyone without a just cause specified in the Quran or in the Sunnah.  
• The one who kills and that one that is killed will go to Hellfire in a case of fighting for worldly reasons.

• The one who breaks a covenant and kill another person will not smell the smell of Paradise.

O Allah! Protect us and our families from the hand of the murderers, and save us from falling into the sin of murder.

In the next post Inshallah we will explain about Major Sin # 3 – Practicing Magic